Well the telecom world continues to shift from an environment where carriers are expected to faithfully connect every call to one in which they are expected to continuously monitor their network traffic to assure that spammers and scammers aren’t afforded access to the U.S. market.

The warnings came with a message straight from the Chairman of each Commission:

“We expect nothing less from these providers than shutting down this scam robocall traffic,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “These companies can access our nation’s phone networks to provide legitimate services to consumers and businesses, not to facilitate floods of scam robocalls. They need to stop this traffic and not let it back on their networks—or face losing their access to the American phone system.”

Fake COVID-19 Refunds.—The scam robocall says: “We cannot provide services due to COVID-19 but you have been charged $399. Press 1 to claim a refund.” RSCom of Knoxville, Tennessee and Aurora, Ontario, is a gateway provider and is currently allowing these fake COVID-19 related refund scam calls into the country from the United Kingdom.

Social Security Administration COVID Scam.—The scam robocall says: “This is a call from [the] Social Security Administration; during this difficult time of coronavirus, we have to suspend your SS account.” PTGi Carrier Services of Washington, DC is apparently responsible for this and another coronavirus robocall campaign, reportedly originating in Germany.

Loan Interest Rate Reduction Scams.—The scam robocall campaigns state: “Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, you may be entitled to no payments on your mortgage, credit card debt or medical bills”; “Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, you may be entitled to no payments on your student loans”; and “Due to the lockdown, we are helping people to pay with 0% interest rates.” Intelepeer of San Mateo, California is facilitating this robocall traffic from overseas.

The letters give these carriers 48 hours to stop this traffic or face unspecified—but sure to be unpleasant—consequences.

Notably, there is no reason to assume that these carriers are necessarily bad actors just because they received a warning letter. We have seen instances in the past where a warning from a Commission might be the first notice the carrier ever received that spam traffic was traversing its network. The proof, ultimately, is in the pudding—it seems carriers that respond quickly to these sorts of warnings and cut off improper traffic are a critical part of the ongoing battle against robocalls and should be lauded (rather than chastised or ostracized) for their efforts.

We’ll keep an eye on this.

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld
Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance.
He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems.
Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience.
While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail.
Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure.
Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense.
In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.
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